Pear Harbor, Chapter nine
Chapter nine of Pear Harbor. Story In the Cape-Suzette militia, the Higher-for-Hire squad were hoping to use their status to their advantage as General Patton walks out. "Excuse me, Mr. Patton?" Rebecca asks, "yes?" Patton replies, "do you remember us?" Rebecca wonders, "oh sure I do, I'm sorry I've been meaning to thank you-" Patton begins, "well maybe you can: when the news comes in about those kids in Antis' fleet, we want to be in the command post" Baloo requests, "I'm sorry I don't know what you're talking about" Patton stutters coyly while putting stuff in his jeep, "how the hell do you know about this mission?" he asks them, "let's call it an inadvertent disclosure" Molly offers, "let me guess: your cloud-surfer kid let the cat out of the bag about it didn't he?" Patton deduced, "well yes, he admitted that they're going into great danger" Rebecca admits shyly, "and we just want to be there when the news tells us, if they've lived or died" Ramón pled, "you know, if it weren't for your notoriety, most officers would have thrown you all in the brig" Patton warns, "yeah well most civilians like us would've just ignore your cry for help instead of answering it, so you owe us" Riven counters and Patton couldn't argue with that as he starts his jeep up, "I can't promise you anything" he says, but at least he was willing to help. Back at the Uslandian fleet, they were halfway there. The Jungle-Aces were decorating their assigned B-25-Mitchell, mainly with invasion stripes so they won't be mistaken for enemies by allies. "Hey Kit, you think they picked us to do this 'cause we're young and dumb?" Ernie jokes while watching Kit paint a large Friendly-Flight symbol from his days on the streets, "come on Ernie we're the tip of the sword" Kit retorts, and Ernie knew it, everyone was also fashioning those fake friendship-medals from Jepang onto the bombs being used, some of the bombs also had the names of the casualties from the Attack on Pear Harbor written on them, "alright in honor of our trip to Jepang, I got us some, victory sodas!" announced a Redondasaurus-man waving some soda-bottles around and everybody take one, "you know Quarsh, we may lose this battle but we're gonna win this war, you know how I know?" Antis says to the placoderm, Quarsh, "no" Quarsh admits, "them" Antis says pointing at the Jungle-Aces, "'cause they're rare, and at times like these, you see them stepping forward, there's nothing stronger than the heart of a child who's been through a world of pain Quarsh" Antis remarks. Prior to the assault, Antis had a speech to give to everyone. "My friends in the war department don't want me to lead this raid, because they say I'm too valuable, they don't want me up in the air flying with the men that I've chosen, that I've chewed out, cussed out, pushed to the limit...and that I've come to respect" he says and pauses for a moment, "they want me to stand on the flight deck and wave you off, well I don't see it that way, so I'm going with you" he adds much to the subordinates' shock, "we take off tomorrow afternoon, drop our fire and head for Pango-Pango, our mission is to hit military targets aircraft and tank-factories" he finishes and was ready for questions, the first to ask was a mayfly-man, "colonel, you've given us homing beacons but you said Pango-Pango is overrun with Jepangnese troops, what if the beacons are switched off?" he asks, "you bring her down any way you can and do your best to avoid capture" Antis answers, "what do we do if our planes are damaged and we have to bail out over Jepang?" Bert asks, "well, in that situation I can't tell you what to do" Antis says, "what would you do Colonel?" Kit asks, Antis thought hard for a second and said "I wasn't built to be a prisoner, so I would have my crew bail out, I'd find the sweetest military target I could and drive my plane right smack into the middle of it and kill as many of those slug-heads as I could, but that's just me", he paused for a moment, "I'm forty-five years old: I'm an old man, you guys have your whole lives ahead of you, so what you do is up to you" he adds. The next day back in Usland Patton has been able to get Higher-for-Hire positions of the job, mainly thanks to Riven. "The mission will launch in a couple of hours, you'll stay right in here Ms. Cunningham since you specialize in paperwork" he directs and Rebecca takes a seat at a desk, "uh huh?" Rebecca obliges, "and Mr. Plesio, since you seem good at mapping you'll be stationed with our mappers" Patton says to Riven who salutes, "and me Wildcat and the tykes?" Baloo wonders, Patton thought for a second, "well Mr. Bruinwald, I think you're best as a radio operator, Mr. Wildcat and the children can help with organizing for us" he proposed, "sure we can do that" Molly promises, Patton nods, "okay then, now don't do anything silly or stupid or you're out: they won't give you a second chance, just do what we tell you to and you'll do fine" Patton advised and they nod and with that they get to work on their assigned stations. Back at the Uslandian fleet, they were 650 nautical miles (1,200 km; 750 mi) from Jepang and counting. "Jeps transmitting! Jeps transmitting!" shouted a snakefly-man suddenly, drawing Antis' attention, "captain, radar reports Jepangnese patrol boats, range four-hundreds yards" he adds, "how many yards?" Antis asks, "four-hundred yards and closing sir" the snakefly repeats, apparently the Jepangnesians had decided to keep watch for a possible retaliation, "Quarsh, Jeps! four-hundred yards! let's go!" Antis screeched, "admiral Halsey's ordering the cruisers to open fire!" orders a damselfly-man, "we gotta sink these Jep boats before they give away our position, go to general quarters!" orders a Nomingia-man who was the captain and the carrier's alarm sounds, "this can't be good!" Rey guessed as everyone scramble to position, "Jeps one mile away, they reported our position" the oviraptorosaur announced, "we're supposed to launch four-hundred miles away, how far are we?" Antis asks, "six-hundred-and-forty-nine miles" the oviraptorosaur-captain states, "Jesus" Antis cursed, "what do you want to do?" the captain asks as Antis looks at a Confuciusornis-man, "I don't know, colonel I don't know if the planes can carry enough fuel to make it to Pango-Pango" the prehistoric-bird laments, but Antis wasn't willing to give up now, "now, we launch now!" he declares, "army pilots, man your planes" another sailor orders over the intercom, at the same time one Alaska-class cruiser deployed a pair of Vought OS2U Kingfisher-observation-floatplanes and one Long Island-class escort carrier deployed one Seafire to intercept the patrol-boat, and a Bathurst-class corvette joins in the intercepting, "they're shooting at something" Felix notes looking out the window until he heard everyone shouting and scrambling to the flight deck and fallows. On the flight-deck, men were hustling to prep the B-25s: this wasn't part of the plan, but if they don't deploy now Jepang would become aware and be ready, and the Uslandians would lose the element of surprise, and they couldn't risk that. "Colonel! we're too far out to make it! these planes need more fuel, but if they're too heavy they might not get off the deck!" warned a coati-man, "listen, I want you to strip everything out of this plane you don't need and I mean now!" Antis shouts desperately to a blenny-man who nods and gets to work, "start pre-flight! let's go!" Sam urges as he gets in the Jungle-Ace's designated bomber, "add ten more tanks of fuel for each plane, every plane!" Antis orders to everyone and many gather some fuel-canteens and distribute them between planes by ten canteens each, "what's your favorite gun?" Antis asks the Jungle-Aces, "what?" Felix responds, "you want to get off this deck? give me the gun now: it's still too heavy!" Antis clarifies and Felix and Bert remove the tail-gun and throw it out to lighten the plane's weight, while Antis turns to other soldiers and says "I want you to go to the kitchen, get some broomsticks, cut 'em down, paint 'em black and bring them here: we'll put a broomstick where this gun was", in no time some soldiers bring over some broomsticks, cut the brushes off, paint them black and distribute them as fake guns, "what are you doing to our plane?" Ernie gasps, "tell your crew to take a potty-break before they take off" Antis advises, "we got broomsticks for tail-guns" Rey complains, "yeah, maybe it'll scare them" Kit humors as they climb aboard their plane and along with everyone else start their engines, "turning on one" Kit announces, "turning on two" Rey adds, "you ready for this guys?" Kit asks the others, "yeah!" they answer, "superchargers low and latched!" said Quarsh, "low and latched" Antis mimics, "we're full into the wind!" reported a tern-man, "more speed more speed" a silverfish-man orders and the bridge-crew crank it up, everyone also gave salutes to each other before takeoff, "are you nervous?" Antis asks Quarsh, "no-yes sir, yes" Quarsh admits, "when did you find religion?" Antis wonders, "when you assigned me to this mission sir" Quarsh describes, "I want you to do me a favor" Antis requests, "what's that colonel?" Quarsh asks, "pray for both of us" Antis answers as the deck-crew gave the signal to go, "let's go!" Antis yells and floors it, instantly the bomber sped off, "max power" Antis orders and they speed up some more to get airborne as everyone else hold their breath, "come on, come on" Antis yells at the plane and luckily they were away, "yeah way to go!" Rey cheers, "Jesus that was short" Antis remarks, and now that they were off Kit and the Jungle-Aces came next, "alright full power here we go" Kit announced and throttles it, "come on here we go here we go" Rey shouts happily and they too were away, and every other B-25 fallow. Eventually all made it into the air and continue on their way. Stay tuned for Pear Harbor, Chapter ten Gallery Category:Fanon for the talespin series Category:Fan fiction